Finally, it happened! Sheba, our Maremma Sheepdog livestock guardian dog, came into estrus and we headed up to Spokane, WA to take her to the stud dog, Iago, for breeding.It has been a while since I have been involved in breeding dogs, and this was the first time I have ever tried to breed livestock guardian dogs. I learned a thing or two.First, a livestock guardian dog's instinct to GUARD will even over-rule a male dog's instinct to BREED. I had never seen a male dog react the way that Iago did to a female in heat. He was having nothing to do with her at all and made it very clear she was NOT welcome on his property!Grasping for straws, I finally suggested we take them for a walk to get him OFF his property and see if that would disarm his guarding instinct enough to let him act like a male dog. Thankfully, it worked and after a short walk down the road, he decided that Sheba was not a threat and that he might, indeed, like her very much LOL.Unfortunately, this being both Sheba and Iago's first breeding, he was having some difficulty figuring it out, so both his owner and I decided to try AI (Artificial Insemination).Now we are in the count down to having an ultrasound to see if it worked! Sheba's ultrasound is scheduled for July 22. I am going to try and NOT obsess about it and wait for the ultrasound - then I can obsess LOL.